Digital & Computational Pathology - Medical Director, Large Spanish Provincial Hospital

A nephrologist discusses the use of digital pathology in their hospital in Spain. They emphasize the role of digital pathology in diagnosing diseases and conditions, particularly in renal transplantation patients. Their hospital uses a Leica scanner and eSlide software for digital pathology services. They also collaborate with a CRO that has its own image management system. The stakeholder mentions the role of digital pathology in clinical trials, such as assessing drug efficacy and studying rare diseases. Within Spain, they estimate that around 90% of hospitals use digital pathology. The stakeholder also covers the spending and allocation of funds for digital pathology, highlighting that a significant portion of the budget is allocated to scanners, and they anticipate an increase in spending on digital pathology in the future. They mention that archiving slides is the most important aspect and expect growth in various categories, such as primary diagnosis, but less of an increase in research. The stakeholder also is interested in the development of a cloud infrastructure. Lastly, the interviewee mentions the use of different technologies in digital pathology, with immunofluorescence being the most common and the expectation of an increase in spatial RNA.